chriskelley.org

.!. I try not to be too ‘environmental’ here too often so I will consider this an economics post. Plus this one really got me going:The US according to Lutz: ethanol, yes, diesels, not so much – Autoblog In that case, Lutz’s opinion is that just about all the customer will glean from an oilburner [...]

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I still love my 2006 Jetta TDI (44.5 MPG over the past 36,300 miles) and can’t see why the Detroit auto makers don’t try to get something going in this market.  For all the attention paid to hybrids, it is still the case that for most American’s a Diesel would be a better alternative than [...]

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.!. These guys are great customers and it seems that the Royal Automotive Club thinks they are doing great things as well.  Being a diesel car (and tractor) owner now, I think the developments here (as well as the Le Mans work done by Audi) are really interesting. Award For JCB Dieselmax

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Of course I knew that there would be no TDI’s (aka Diesels) coming from Volkswagen or any other car manufacturer in states in 2007 and that there would be new models coming along in 2008 when I bought it, so this isn’t that big of a surprise.  However it looks like VW has revealed the [...]

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So I crossed the 5,000 mile mark today so I stopped by Champion VW in Florence to get my initial service today.  To be honest, I was going to stop by Friday since I had more time, but I called them first thing and got a VM.  Even though I left a message, I never [...]

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Well it’s been a week now so I think rather than misplaced, my iPod is officially lost.  I was using it last weekend doing some outside chores and catching up on a few podcasts.  I laid it down somewhere, but can’t remember where.  In the past week I’ve retraced my steps several times and still [...]

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I am still very happy with my new Jetta TDI.  The gas mileage has stayed above 45 MPG consistently, even when I was driving it a bit harder (got the change to go on some twisties near the house and ‘used’ the transmission a bit more than that brakes).  The interior is very comfortable and [...]

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Had to run the FLying J today to get some propane for the grill so I went ahead and filled up a bit earlier than I needed to.  I had 547.5 on the trip odo and had to put 11.959 gallons in for a 45.8 MPG.  Still very impressive.  Guess the AC really dropped it [...]

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Had my second fill-up this morning.  Much better MPG this time: 46.4.  That could be due to a number of factors: I didn’t run the AC nearly as much this time (the weather was nicer last week on the way home each day). I filled up this tank vs. the dealer on the first tank, [...]

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Being a new Diesel car owner, I have taken a small interest in the emerging discussion about Biofuels.  If the shit hits the fan, it is somehow strangely comforting that I could grow my own gas on the few spare acres on the back of our farm.  Of course, if the shit does hit the [...]

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